It’s 8am on a Tuesday and Rudi Swart, 33, is getting ready for yet another day in the office. After tossing his work bag in his car, he picks up his colleague – experienced rock climber, Matthew Kingma – from his home in the South African town of George. From there it’s a 20-minute drive to the Groenkop Forest parking area, and a 25-minute walk to the 17-metre (55-foot) assegai tree (Curtisia dentata) Swart – who himself measures 1.94 metres (6.36 feet) – will be climbing today.
Before climbing the tree, they need to throw a rope with a weighted end over a suitable branch. This is a frustrating process that can take up to an hour of trying, but today they are in luck: Kingma scores a perfect strike on his fourth attempt. Once the rope is around the branch, they pull it down and use it to take a second rope to the top of the tree. Swart attaches one of the ropes to his harness and climbs the other one, while Kingma waits at the bottom and makes sure his charge cannot fall. “You feel it in the legs, not the arms,” says Swart, with a diffident laugh. “When I started, I was slow. But now I can get up a tree in about 10 minutes.”
